This invention relates generally to fabric hemming apparatus and, more particularly, to a conveyor type machine for automatically folding a top edge of a piece of knitted fabric, such as a pocket, and hemming it with a back binding tape, after which the tape is cut and the hemmed fabric pieces stacked and delivered back to an operator.
Hemming machines for automatically producing hemmed fabric pieces, such as pre-processed pockets which are later sewn on the front of a dress shirt, are generally known. Such apparatus typically involves equipment for delivering a pocket piece to a folder section where a hem fold is formed along one edge, which is followed by delivering the pocket with the hem fold to a sewing machine where the fold is simply stitched or a piece of binding tape is sewn to the hem fold. Following the sewing operation, the hemmed pocket, in some instances, is trimmed and then fed to an unloading station where hemmed pockets are removed manually or are automatically accumulated for subsequent removal, for example, in a stack of pre-processed pocket parts.